


How Tigger Got His Bounce Back

by automaticdoor



Category: Winnie-the-Pooh - A. A. Milne
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/automaticdoor/pseuds/automaticdoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Pooh was a bear of very little brain – in fact, he had cotton stuffing where his brain should be, which is not very conducive to much proper thought at all – it is really no wonder that he got stuck for the eleventy-billionth time in a very large tree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Tigger Got His Bounce Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> flipflop_diva, I had so much fun plotting this for you!

Because Pooh was a bear of very little brain – in fact, he had cotton stuffing where his brain should be, which is not very conducive to much proper thought at all – it is really no wonder that he got stuck for the eleventy-billionth time in a very large tree. At least, that’s what Piglet thought as he surveyed the scene.

“P-p-p-Pooh! Are you all right?” Piglet called out tentatively. Bees were swarming around Pooh angrily and Piglet was very nervous that the bees would decide that Piglet was in on the joke as well, which he most decidedly was not. 

“I’m fine! I’m just stuck in this rather small hole up in this very large tree!” Pooh yelled back in a somewhat muffled voice, as his mouth was full of honey and his head was stuck inside the hole.

“Do you need help?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine!” And so Pooh went back to eating the honey in a most unbothered way, while Piglet wondered what exactly he should be doing. He could try climbing the very large tree, but he wouldn’t make it to the first branch. Besides, the bees would not be happy with him. So, he did the only thing he could think of.

“Um. Tigger?” he yelled. “Tigger!”

But the Tigger who finally came was not the Tigger who knocked people over with a single pounce (and oh! what a scary pounce that was!), the Tigger who would be capable of bouncing right up into that tree and fetching Pooh Bear down. The Tigger who sadly walked – not bounced! – over was a dejected Tigger indeed.

“Tigger! What’s wrong? Why aren’t you bouncing?”

“Piglet. I’ve lost my bounce.” Tigger hung his head low.

“Oh, d-d-d-dear.” And then an awful thought occurred to Piglet. “Was it the Heffalumps? Or the Woozles?!”

“No, Piglet.”

“Then what was it?!”

“Oh, I don’t know. I woke up a few days ago and I got to thinking. I thought about how silly it is to bounce everywhere all the time. And then I thought, maybe I should just walk everywhere, you know, proper-like. And so I decided to give up bouncing. And now I just can’t do it, Piglet.”

“You mean, at all?”

“At all.”

“Then how are we going to get Pooh out of this tree?”

“I don’t know.” And so they plopped down on the ground together to think. Meanwhile, Pooh continued to gorge himself on honey. The bees, having given up on getting their hole back, flew off together.

Finally, Tigger said, “Piglet, you have to have an idea. I’m all out of ideas. All I can think about is how I can’t bounce.” 

Piglet pondered their options carefully. “Well, it’s no use talking to Rabbit. And he’s visiting his relations, anyway. And Eeyore—“

“What about Eeyore?” a voice said from behind Piglet, causing him to startle with fright. When he recovered, he turned around to find himself nose-to-nose with the donkey in question.

“E-e-e-eyore! Oh my goodness! You startled me!” Piglet said.

“Well, I know I’m not that pleasant a voice to hear unexpectedly, but thanks for noticing.”

“Oh, Eeyore, Pooh’s stuck in that very large tree and Tigger has lost his bounce!”

“I always knew the day would come,” Eeyore said. “Someone who bounces that much was bound to run out of bounces eventually. As for Pooh, well, this isn’t the first time. Where’s Christopher Robin?”

“I don’t know! Eeyore, we have to get him down quickly before he eats all the honey and gets stuck for weeks again!”

“Well, I don’t know all that much about getting people down from places they shouldn’t be, but have you talked to Owl? He’s forgotten more than I ever knew. Not that it’s that hard.”

“Eeyore, you’re a g-g-g-enius! Owl can surely help us out!”

And so the threesome walked over to Owl’s house, of late Piglet’s house, and knocked on the door.

“Whooooooo is it?”

“Owl! Owl, it’s Piglet and Tigger and Eeyore!”

“I say, what is all the fuss?” Owl said, somewhat annoyed, as he opened the door, for Owl was taking a nap that afternoon, as he had been awake all night, as was his way.

“Owl! You have to hurry! P-p-p-pooh’s stuck in the very large tree!”

“Oh! Well! I can fetch him.” Owl ruffled up his feathers and flew ahead of the group proudly, soaring to the top of the very large tree and landing next to Pooh. 

“Now, Pooh, what on earth are you doing in this tree?”

“Eating honey to soothe the rumbly in my tumbly,” Pooh mumbled around a sticky mouthful of the golden nectar.

“Well, did you ever think about how you were going to get down?”

“No? ...Oh, bother.” 

“I daresay, my Uncle Robert had some things to say about bears who did not plan properly!” And Owl started droning on and on about his Uncle Robert, the problems with allowing Young Bears to live alone in Society unchaperoned, the Failure to Properly Plan, &c, &c. He went on at great length about these topics and many more, and meanwhile, Piglet and the others were growing increasingly worried. (As for Pooh, he happily could not hear Owl, as the acoustics of the hole were such that one had to yell from outside to be heard.)

“Owl? Owl, how is Pooh?” Piglet called, but Owl did not hear Piglet over the sound of his own voice. 

Thankfully, at that moment, Kanga and Roo came past. “What are you doing?” Roo asked, and the whole sad story came pouring out.

“...and so now Owl is up there in the tree talking to Pooh about planning, and we don’t know what to do!” Piglet cried.

Kanga nodded solemnly, but her eyes were sparkling. “Tigger, if I may, may I tell you something I told Roo last week?” she asked gently.

“Fine,” he said.

“Tigger, when you stop believing in yourself and your own inner goodness, even for a little while, you start to lose the things that make you you. In this case, that would be your bouncing.”

“That sounds ri-dick-a-lous! But, I suppose you could be right, Kanga. How would I get it back?”

“Focus on all the things you are, Tigger. Tiggers are supposed to be bouncy! Otherwise, they wouldn’t be Tiggers.”

“Hey! You’re right! Y’know, Tiggers _are_ supposed to be bouncy! I guess I just forgot, somehow.”

“It happens to all of us sometimes.”

And with that, Tigger thought very hard. Very, very hard. And he bounced, and he bounced, and he bounced right up into that very large tree and landed on the branch next to Owl, who had moved on to the topic of Proper Etiquette in Honey Tasting. “Pooh! It’s me! Tigger! Let’s go, old buddy.”

And he yanked Pooh out of the hole as quick as could be (despite Pooh’s protests) and bounced on down that tree onto the haphazard mattress pile that Roo and Piglet had constructed, landing squarely in the middle with Pooh.

“Hoo hoo hoo hoo!” Tigger yelled as he bounced around the bottom of the very large tree. Even Eeyore looked pleased, or as pleased as a quite pessimistic donkey could look. 

And there was much celebrating in the Hundred Acre Wood that evening, for Pooh was safe, and Tigger had got his bounce back.

THE END


End file.
